


Choice

by maryfic



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Episode Tag, F/M, Fantasy, Wishful Thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-09
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-04 01:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1761627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maryfic/pseuds/maryfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hotch wonders what could have been, if he’d not fought so hard to get into the BAU. Because sometimes, one hundred percent isn’t enough. Post episode 1.13.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choice

When he closes his eyes after long case, sometimes he thinks, fantasizes, really, about what his life could have been like if he’d not traveled down one path instead of another. 

In Seattle, there had been plenty of murders across his desk, to be sure. But at the end of the day, there was also a happy wife. And such a thing is but a hazy memory now, one he clings to desperately as he slides into dreams. 

The house is warm, bright, full of sunlight and laughter. He puts his briefcase down by the front door, is greeted with a long, slow, kiss and a warm embrace. Then chubby arms go around his neck and wet kisses slobber over his face as he takes his son, his Jack, from Haley. 

They smile at each other, glad that he is home, secure in the knowledge that this will happen every day for the foreseeable future. Jack eagerly tangles his hands in Daddy’s tie, and Hotch obligingly removes it, draping the department store issue over the little hands. 

Dinner is thick and fragrant in the air, and the house is inviting, comforting as they move through it and Hotch slips easily into husband and father - he never really leaves the role behind, not really, he just tucks Aaron into a suit during the day. He’d live in jeans if he could. 

They eat, as a family. Watch a movie, curled up together, Jack dozing sweet and baby-soft between them, Aaron’s hands carding through Haley’s shoulder-length hair as she too, slips into dreams. 

But when Hotch wakes, the harsh bright lights of the tarmac and his team around him remind him that there is no such thing as two hundred percent, and so he gathers what is left of himself and tries to refuel in the too short for such things drive home.


End file.
